Crovitz: Iran's Favorite Bankers

Today's technology makes attempts to evade sanctions far more likely to be discovered.

By

L. Gordon Crovitz

Updated Aug. 14, 2012 7:43 p.m. ET

The British policy of appeasing Nazi Germany became less tenable when the Bank of England in March 1939 secretly transferred gold reserves it was holding for Czechoslovakia to Hitler's central bank soon after his troops conquered the country. When the transfer became public, the British bankers claimed they had no choice: The Germans had the Czech gold, even if it was gained by force and would fuel the Nazi war effort.

Today, finance is conducted digitally, not by moving gold bars from country to country. This makes it...